As is well known, garage doors or gates enclose an area to allow selective ingress and egress to and from the area. Garage doors initially were moveable by hand. But due to their weight and the inconvenience of opening and closing the door, motors are now connected to the door. Control of such a motor may be provided by a hard-wired push button which, when actuated, relays a signal to an operator controller that starts the motor and moves the door in one direction until a limit position is reached. After the door has stopped and the button is pressed again, the motor moves the door in an opposite direction. Garage door operators are now provided with safety features which stop and reverse the door travel when an obstruction is encountered. Other safety devices, such as photocells and sensors, detect whenever there is an obstruction within the path of the door and send a signal to the operator to take corrective action. Remote control devices are now also provided to facilitate the opening and closing of the door without having to get out of the car. The prior art also discloses various other features which enhance the convenience of opening and closing a garage door as follows.
There is considerable work in the area of automatic delayed closing of a barrier as shown and described in the patent to Lin, U.S. Pat. No. 5,357,183. The primary object of the '183 patent is to provide an automatic closure for powered overhead garage doors after the vehicle exits or enters the garage. Another object is to provide a safety reverse if an obstruction occurs during the closure movement. Yet another object is to provide automatic closure if the garage door is inadvertently left open for a predetermined period of time, and also to provide a warning signal shortly before the garage door begins to close if it was left open for an extended period of time. For the accomplishment of the above and related objects, the device employs an add-on photoelectric sensor to detect the movement of a vehicle into or out of the garage. When a vehicle has entered or exited the garage, the photoelectric sensor signals a delay timer to energize and then an activating timer will, in turn, activate a relay to cause the opener control unit to close the door. Other situations that do not involve the movement of a vehicle to cause the garage door to close are effected by an oscillator that produces a signal every five (5) minutes or so to cause the garage door to close if it remains open for whatever reason. Such devices are now incorporated into the operator since the standalone devices add additional expense to perform these functions. Further, there is no means to defeat the add-on feature when the function is not needed or the door needs to remain open for long periods of time.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,326,754 to Mullet, et al. discloses a wireless operating system utilizing a multi-functional wall station for a motorized door/gate operator includes an operator for controlling the movement of a door/gate between various positions. The system has an operator with a receiver and a wall station transmitter for transmitting a signal to the receiver. The signal initiates separate operator functions in addition to opening and closing of the door/gate. A remote transmitter may send a remote signal received by the receiver, wherein the receiver is capable of distinguishing between the wall station signal and the remote signal. The wall station includes a transmitter programming button, wherein actuation of the transmitter programming button places the receiver in a learn mode, and wherein subsequent actuation of the remote transmitter positively identifies the remote transmitter for use with the operator. A light powered by the operator and a light actuation button provided by the wall station transmitter is included in the system. Actuation of the light actuation button functions to switch the light on or off. A pet height button, provided by the wall station transmitter, selectively positions the height of the gate/door from its fully closed position to allow ingress and egress of a pet. A delay-close button closes the door/gate after a predetermined period of time. Actuation of a door installation button sequences the door/gate and said operator through various operational parameters to establish a door operating profile. All of the buttons on the wall station are exposed which allows some of them to be accidentally actuated. A keyless entry transmitter and a second wall station may also control the operator. The disclosed method of automatically closing the door is focused on delaying the door closing to allow an individual to exit the garage without tripping the secondary entrapment devices such as photo cells. The delay close feature provides no means of external adjustment of the time period for activating the closing of the door and it only provides this function if activated with the door in the open position. The delay close feature will not automatically close a door that has been left open or opened by the extrinsic sources mentioned above. Further there is no means of choosing between fully automatic delayed close and normal operation other than depressing the correct button on the wall station which needs to be done each time.
Other operator devices may incorporate “hands-free” features such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. application Ser. No. 10/744,180 which is assigned to the assignee of the present application. The features described therein to control the barrier are based on proximity conditions and positions of a mobile unit, and a base unit maintained in the operator. One type of condition that may be recognized is when the mobile unit is directly connected to the mobile unit's ignition switch. But, if the user declines to undertake the added expense of a hands-free system, they must first activate a wall station door up button and then enter their automobile. However, during inclement weather, the user may first enter the automobile, locate their remote transmitter and then open the barrier. This scenario can be troublesome if the remote transmitter has been taken inside or the user's automobile interior is messy and the transmitter cannot be found.
The systems described above are lacking in that they do not provide an automated delay opening feature. Nor does any known system provide a delay opening feature in combination with a delay close feature, or where these features can be easily turned off and on.